TV Times – 28st August 2011

I’ve had such a busy week that I had to Fast-Forward through everything on Friday night to fit it all in, which is NOT the way I normally like to do it. It’s all a bit rushed I’m afraid, but it was that or nothing – and I couldn’t post nothing. (You might have liked that!)

Celebrity Apprentice USA

The only thing I DID watch properly though was this; my TV heaven (except for Hilary Devey of course)! The lovely Trace Adkins spoke about six whole sentences this week; bliss! His voice is pure heaven. You need to hear it to know what I mean.

As it goes on, Piers Morgan comes over as more arrogant and unpleasant. His behaviour towards the reality TV personality Omarosa this week was nothing less than a disgrace, and I can’t help but feel he’d have done a lot better by keeping a ‘Stiff Upper Lip’ and rising above it all.

I don’t know how it must have gone down with American viewers as it aired, but as he’s got his own Series and appears to be a big star there now, I guess they must have liked it? (Think Gordon Ramsay but without the F-word.) He does have some good ideas, but (to me), just comes across as too rude.

I don’t know who wins, but am hoping it’ll be Trace. I love Donald and Ivanka, so watch it for them as much as anything, but the whole thing is – for me – just perfect TV! (Episode 12 BBC1 Monday 11.15 pm).

Show Me the Funny

As I feared, Pat Monahan won. I’d guessed from day one that it would probably be him. I’d happened to catch sight of him in the background of something else a couple of weeks ago and thought it was a bit odd to have seen him there, so guessed it had meant he’d probably won (I’d assumed the whole Series was pre-recorded and didn’t know there was a ‘live’ final at that point). I can’t help but wonder now though if it wasn’t all just a bit of an X Factor-type win (ie possibly somehow pre-arranged maybe)?

We all have different things which make us laugh, but I’m sorry, I just didn’t find him funny. All he did was walk around the stage and have a bit of banter with the crowd, which obviously has to be part of a comedian’s act, but he just seemed to totally rely on that and – for me – THAT is not the basis of a career. I’ve seen comedians doing better material in comedy nights in Swindon; three of whom I’d be confident in putting up against any one of those in that show.

If they do another Series, I hope a lot of ‘jobbing’ comedians who write GOOD material will enter, as I wouldn’t say any of this crowd wrote anything of note. That’s just my opinion of course, but I spend the best part of my life listening to comedy in some shape or form, and one of the reasons I’ve always watched Soaps has been for the humour, so know for sure that it’s not just about ‘looking the part’ on stage like Pat Monahan (even though I have a serious urge to smash his face in for some reason), it’s how funny you are …

The Hour

As I write this, I’ve only watched half of it (just ran out of time), but I haven’t understood a word of it – except the bit where Hector’s wife tells him she’ll divorce him if he doesn’t come home. I’ll have to get to the end, but I wish I’d never started watching it as I haven’t understood any of it since the first twenty minutes of Ep 1, and have disliked all the characters except Bix.

The X Factor

I’m out on Saturday night (and staying-over with friends), so won’t have been able to watch this by the time I post this blog, but I’ve recorded it – for the first time in years – so that says it all.

I’ve read a lot of comment online in various places this week about the new panel, and the initial thumbs-up on Saturday night has gradually replaced by people complaining that they weren’t ‘nasty’ enough. I wonder whether people will – over the Series – find that they’ll actually prefer more sensible and balanced opinions as opposed to the ‘Me, me, me,’ attitude of the previous judges?

Part of the problem this show had was its tipping-over from being a ‘talent’ show into nothing more than a weekly slanging match which became more about the judges than the acts, and I – for one – much prefer a show where it’s about the acts and hopefully about finding new talent, rather than just a ‘rigged’ vehicle for promoting Simon Cowell, so it was a definite “Yes’ from me after week one! (ITV1 Saturdays 8.00 pm.)

Dragon’s Den

It’s easy to watch this show in 20 minutes. Just record it and then F/F the first five minutes and the bits where they’re walking up the stairs etc, and you’ve saved lots of time!

Wasn’t it great to see Hilary getting into that Bingo-ball tube? You could see in her eyes how much she loved it. She’s so kind, helpful and gives such constructive advice to the candidates (unlike the others, who I thought were extremely rude and very patronising to a lot of the candidates this week).

It takes a lot to stand up in front of potential Investors – particularly with a load of cameras there – and not everyone is able to put themselves across in the way they’d like. Give them a break, aye?

I wouldn’t even be watching if it wasn’t for Hilary Devey (sighs), but I must admit that the end of last week’s Episode was good. I’ll bet those brothers with the garden posts are kicking themselves now! (Episode 5 BBC2 Sunday 8.00 pm).

Still miles behind on my Radio listening, but this week I’ve been catching up on Radio 4’s ‘Everyone Quite likes Justin’ (Justin Moorhouse’s recent – and very funny – sitcom), ‘Down the Line’, and more of ‘The Headset Set’, which is has got some great one-liners.

I also re-listened to an Episode of Matt Lucas’s ‘And the Winner Is’ with Henning Wehn and Susan Calman. Laugh? I should say so.

I’ve added a link to it here, and if you just click on it and scroll down to And The Winner Is… 2Day Special you’ll be able to download it. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed! CLICK HERE TO GO TO PAGE

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About Jane Reynolds

Jane's debut novel “Just Good Friends?” is for sale on Amazon/Kindle, and much of her time is spent doing weekly ‘Soapy Corner’ blogs, which take a sideways look at the best (and the worst!) of the week’s events in Soapland.